This was the first police contract in 23 years that was completed through negotiations rather than arbitration by a judge. Both sides have not been able to come to an agreement on a contract since Patrick Halpin was county executive.

“This is a fair and equitable agreement,” Suffolk PBA President Noel DiGerolamo said. “And it’s an historic event, both in the length and the fact it was negotiated.”

Under the terms of the agreement, which runs retroactively from Jan. 1, 2011 through Dec. 31, 2020, police officers in Suffolk will receive no pay raises for the first two years, followed by a 1.5 percent hike in 2013.

After that, police officers will receive raises “in line with recent arbitration awards” for the remainder of the 10-year contract, Bellone said. That equates to raises of between 3 and 3.5 percent each year.

Having no increase pay for 2011 and 2012 means Suffolk will not be on the hook for any retroactive pay, saving the county about $30 million next year. The county is facing a budget shortfall in 2013 of $300 million.

In addition, all new county employees, including police officers, will begin contributing 15 percent to their health insurance premiums, a recurring savings of $17 million a year, according to Bellone.

And rather than have starting police officers reach top salaries equal to roughly $108,000 after five years on the job, the contract adds seven steps to the pay scale, meaning new recruits will have to wait 12 years to get to that top pay rate. The starting salary for a new officer is $42,000, which will remain unchanged.

“Our priorities were to address the deficit, make new cops more affordable and break the cycle of arbitration,” Bellone said.

The contract may provide many needed savings for 2013, but having such a long-term contract means Suffolk will have virtually no room to receive give-backs from the police union through 2020. The contract includes a no-layoff clause for police officers, which also extends through 2020.

In addition, savings from new recruits can only happen if the county actually hires new recruits. Bellone said he had no plans to hire new offices in the immediate future.

The county still has plans to lay off about 100 other county employees. The county’s roughly 10 other unions, including its largest, the Suffolk County American Municipal Employees, still need to have their contracts negotiated before this year’s budget is finished later this year.

The police department’s highway patrol officers will also once again be policing the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway after the job was given to the deputy sheriffs in 2008 by then-County Executive Steve Levy as a way to save several million dollars a year. The PBA contended the shift was illegal, filing a complaint to the state’s Public Employee Relations Board, which was eventually dismissed.

“To have one police force on our highways again, I can’t tell you how much that means to the citizens of Suffolk County,” said Presiding Officer William Lindsay, who made an appearance despite an ongoing battle against cancer.

Suffolk highway patrol officers will take over once the contract is approved by the Legislature, likely to happen sometime in September.

4 comments

Thank God we now have a county executive that has a brain.We now know how much money will be bugeted for the next ten years for the Suffolk County Police department.
County executive Levy and all his cronies including ex commissioner Dormer were the laughing stock of the county.

No politician should be allowed to make a union contract that extends for a ten year period. That’s spells suicide for the taxpayer = be sure of it.
Suffolk County has a $300 Million shortfall = 2013 deficit – and there’s no layoffs of policemen allowed?
And what about the benefits? Contributing 15% to their health insurance! Wow!
What’s the deal on their retirement pay? And after how many years?
What about overtime pay and how it affects retirement/benefits.
Politicians make deals with unions because unions pay back with contributions to policians. Bad scene!
There should be no public employees unions. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed this issue and recognized it was suicide for the taxpaying public.